Sports Participation Transcends Social Class Essay

Abstract: Society is affected every day by many different kinds of sports.  These sports often govern society's way of life.  People all over the nation turn their TVs to sporting events, such as golf, during the weekends.   Scott Stossel states that "more than six million Americans enjoy watching golf on the weekends."  Parents  use sports as a teaching tool for their children.  Kids learn teamwork and discipline from team sports programs and  sports have also helped many students with their grades.  Kids who want to compete in school sports are taught to keep their grades up or they won't be able to play, but the greedy coaches and schools often look around grades to keep their "star athletes" in the games.  Adults have

America’s classes appear to be split up in three sections: Upper, Middle, and Lower class. People categorize each other depending on what they wear, where they live, who they associate with, and what jobs they have. Income and wealth have a substantial part of the American class.

In Jeffrey Schranks’ short story, “Sport and the American Dream”, he is trying to show us that the sport America watches and plays, portrays America’s character as a nation. Since America goes from baseball to football we it shows us that we are becoming more violent. his comparisons of sports and war is says best how America changes as a country over the years. Back when baseball was Americas’ pastime to being a totally football country. When we were a baseball country, Americans were happier, not many cared about wars or violence just the enjoyment they got from watching the games with friends or family at the ballpark. It didn’t matter that the sport wasn’t moving at a fast pace or so competitive. Football is the

Athletics had relative importance in pre-industrial Britain mostly taking place at traditional fairs and festivals. For example a wake was seen as a great social occasion whereby mainly the lower class men would compete in events such as stick fighting, running, climbing a greasy pole and wrestling. These activities were seen as ‘athletic’ events and were an opportunity for the lower class men to show off their power and strength to the women. In addition women had the opportunity to take part in events such as smock races. Festivals and fairs such as these would take place on church holy days such as Easter and were seen as a chance for celebration and enjoyment. Prime examples of Festivals such as these include the Much Wenlock and Dover

In our society sports are a very important social construction. As sports continue to grow, they are becoming more integrated into the major spheres of social life. Sports have become an entity, due to the fact that they not only create entertainment and jobs; sports have become a huge platform for various causes. Sports are extremely important to our society and have very powerful influences. Though experiences vary from person to person, most people have some sort of experience with sports. I personally have experienced sports more from the spectator and participant stance, and have been impacted from each perspective a great deal. Compared to sophomore safety, Jamal Adams my sports experience has been very different from impact and perspective.

In the Journal “Sport and Society: Annual Review of Sociology” written by Robert E. Washington and David Karen they talk about gender and sports in one section of their Journal. In this section the author addresses masculinity in sports and the attempts of Title IX to try and make sports equal in the sense that if women make up 40% of the athlete population they should receive 40% of the resources. However, this is not the case “The most recent data (Suggs 2000) reveal that in 1998–1999 women made up 42% of Division I athletes, received 42% of scholarship monies, 31% of recruiting budgets, 34% of coaching-salary budgets, and 33% of total operating expenses. According to Andrew Zimbalist (2000:B9), women “still play in inferior facilities, stay in lower-caliber hotels on the road, eat in cheaper restaurants, benefit from smaller promotional budgets, and have fewer assistant coaches.” (Washington and Karen, 2001) This long quote showcases that although women are starting to get what they deserve when it comes to a the percentage of Athletics that they comprise it is still not up to par. Although it is not technically salary, the gap in scholarship money and money spent of faculty for female athletes showcases how money it’s sports always goes to the male athletes no matter at what level. In a more recent example that further pushes the points that were made in Washington and Karen’s journal would be the U.S. Women’s Soccer team compared to the U.S. Men’s Soccer team. Both

Looking through American history, we see that sports has been used to conserve and show off the social order going on at that point in time. They [sports] was and is used to show off one's masculinity, to show off one's racial superiority. Tools like discipline, cooperation, strategy and rigor allowed the superior elite to use sports as a way of prepping businessmen, military member or industrialists. While African Americans, Japanese and other oppressed minorities to aim for equal treatment on and off the field.

Questions |Unemployed and Homeless |Working Class |Middle Class |Upper Middle Class |Upper Class | |Who is most likely to be a part of this socioeconomic class?

There are four categories of class in contemporary American society: upper, middle, working and lower. Of these four categories of classes, two are subdivide. These two are: upper class and the middle class.

The social class structure in America is generally divided into mainly three strata: The rich constituting the upper class, the moderately affluent category comprising the middle class, and financially and socially backward people who form the lower class. There are also superimposing areas like the upper-middle class and the lower-upper class. The stratification is based on the social as well as economic environments. Although these classifications and entry to these statuses are not fixed, these three classifications give an overall perceptive of the social classification in the United States of America. (study.com)

It’s amazing how sports bring people together, no matter what race, or what abilities you have people can come together when they share something, and sports happen to have a very large effect. No matter who you are or what your abilities are you can always include yourself and others in sports. You don’t necessarily have to play them since there are other ways to be included. You could coach them, sit in the stands, or even watch them on TV. That’s the great thing about sports, no matter what language you speak, what you look like, or what restrictions you may have, there is always a way to be part of a

Most Upper and Middle Classmen play non-contact sports, such as golf, polo, and tennis. These sports have more rules, are more formally played, overall better sportsmanship, more competitive and more organized. They usually aren't stressed and the more free time they have the more participation they can have. Boys who play these sports are offered more opportunities than girls, they boys usually participate more than girls. These sports are usually played because they help develop educational and life skills, and reflect values. People of high social class usually chose to compete in the more expensive sports, while people in middle to lower classes are forced to play sports that do not require a large amount of money to participate, such as running, soccer, wrestling, baseball, volleyball and basketball. The lower classmen usually play more contact sports, such as football, wrestling, and basketball. These sports are generally more laid back, casual, can be played to settle a bet or to gain something, they are also competitive. These sports are common stress relievers. Over half of African Americans parents report unequal opportunities between boys and girls, girls are often unwelcome in sports that are played. These sports are sometimes played to gain popularity, raises self esteem, and gain respect. Tickets to big sports events are genuinely too expensive for many people today. Ticket prices increase about 30% after new building/sports arenas are constructed. Food, drinks, and merchandise are obviously overpriced at big sports events. Some individuals feel the need to play the sport that they grew up with, and they may also feel trapped in their social class that they grew up.

Sports teach countless important lessons that apply to school and afterwards in the real world. A few of the skills that you can learn while playing sports include sportsmanship, hard work, leadership, teamwork, discipline,

With the chance at a college scholarship becoming the main focus for some students who play sports, club sports seem to be the way to go. On the other hand Dan Gould, Michigan State professor, provides some example of why club sports may not be the best way to go. The biggest reason is the “One-sport wonder” student athletes who specialize in one sport their entire life. “Specialization leads to overuse injuries: pitch counts get too high, players use the same muscles and hurt them” (12). So when students play club sports and specialize they risk the chance of hurting themselves and losing out on scholarship opportunities. Gould continues his point by saying playing multiple sports, and gaining multiple skills help athletes to perform better. So the claim that students should play club because it’s better for developing their skills is not completely valid. Students who play high school sports are more likely to play more than one sport and potentially gain skills that an athlete playing club sports will not.

The article that we have chosen for our scholarly article was “Athletics as a Source for Social Status among Youth”. The main reason for this article is to further the understanding of sport as a source for youth popularity among a national US sample of 3rd through 12th graders. They first review previous work on the issue to discuss the roles gender, grade level, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status might play in the association between sport and social status and present there hypotheses regarding the relationship of each of these variables. Then they examine the relationship between athletic status and popularity using quantitative descriptive analysis and logistic regression to determine if this relationship varies according to gender, race/ethnicity, grade level, and socioeconomic status. The central purpose of this study is to examine first, whether youth perceive sport as a status enhancer for themselves and their peers. Second, to determine if variation in this perception can be accounted for by student’s athletic status, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and grade level.